YOUR FAITH AND HOPE ARE IN GOD (Outline)
April 22, 2007 - EASTER 3 - 1 Peter 1:17-21
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INTRO: This week our media has accurately shown the hopelessness that is the minds of many. Evil is alive and well. Often this evil is seen in man’s inhumanity to mankind. The world around us gives up. There is despair, discouragement and even depression. All too many have placed their hope in this life. Worse, all to many have placed their hope in God for this rather than for eternity. Don’t get the wrong idea. God can, does, and will help us in this life in our needs. "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep"(1 CORINTHIANS 15:19,20).
Our deepest need is for what is yet to come. Today’s text teaches about putting our faith and hope in our eternal, living God for an eternal, living inheritance. We discover today’s theme in the last phrase of the last sentence in our text.
YOUR FAITH AND HOPE ARE IN GOD.
We will see how I. God bought you with a price;
in order to II. Live lives in reverent fear.
I. GOD BOUGHT YOU WITH A PRICE
A. A quick recap of why Peter wrote this letter. The believers were facing extreme persecution.
1. 1 Peter is not a letter of despair and discouragement. It was written as a letter of hope.
2. God wanted these early believers to be filled with hope. Hope to overcome the world.
B. Verse 18 begins by saying, for you know. These believers were not in the dark, without hope.
1. These believers knew, believed and confessed God’s truth. Jesus’ blood paid the price.
2. The immortal paid for the mortal, the sinless for the sinful, the imperishable for the perishable.
3. Jesus did it all to save them from their empty, sinful life inherited from their fathers.
C. Valuable silver and gold were not enough. Verse 19 reminds them of the blood of Christ.
1. Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God they had been waiting for and needed.
2. Verse 20a describes the certainty of their salvation guaranteed by God before creation.
D. The price for our redemption has not changed over the years. The attitude towards the price of redemption has changed. Mankind is so arrogant today that he feels as if his salvation depends on himself. People like to think they can earn heaven by good deeds or obedience. Man puts to much trust in himself that he forgets to put faith and hope in God. How sad. Such an attitude easily leads to despair, discouragement, and depression. Eternal salvation depends entirely on God not on us. We are thankful. "The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father"(GALATIANS 1:4). Notice that Paul describes his day as the present evil age. Nothing has gotten any better almost 2,000 years later. God reminds us the days grow evil.
E. In our materialistic world it is important to remember that God’s price of redemption was the sacrifice of his only begotten Son, Jesus the Christ, our Savior. Not all the wealth in the world is enough to even make a down payment on one single sin. You and I simply cannot buy our way out of hell and into heaven. We cannot earn eternity. The reality is that we do not even deserve to be saved. We still sin daily and we still sin much. What are we to do? We put our faith and hope in God. Praise the Lord! God bought us with a price. "No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him--the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough--that he should live on forever and not see decay"(PSALM 49:7-9). The only ransom that counted was the precious blood of the Lamb of God.
F. God bought you with a price and now your lives are changed. No longer are we slaves to Satan. No longer do always give in to the temptations of this wicked world. No longer do we blindly follow the lusts and desires of our sinful flesh. Instead, we have put our faith and hope in God. We know and believe and confess that this resurrected Jesus is our Lord and Savior. This is not an empty hope. This is our hope filled with life, salvation and forgiveness! "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin"(1 JOHN 1:7).
YOUR FAITH AND HOPE ARE IN GOD.
God bought you with a price. Our joyous reaction --
II. LIVE LIVES IN REVERENT FEAR
A. Remember these believers were struggling with the persecution of the government and the church.
1. This early church could have easily faced and early extinction.
2. No matter how, how hard, how much Satan tried the gates of hell would not overcome.
B. Peter reminds these believers of God’s great goodness in verse 20. God planned salvation for all.
1. Jesus was revealed in these last times for your sake. Jesus was born at just the right time.
2. God’s right time was for Jesus’ life and the right time for these believers’ hope and faith.
C. Verse 21 displays the power of their God. God raised Jesus from the dead. That is power!
1. Back to verse 17. God the Father judges impartially. The world was very partial and biased.
2. These believers knew fear. They feared for their lives because of the persecuting government.
3. There was also fear of God. In God they put their faith and hope -- a reverent fear, respect.
D. As believers we have a dual nature. As long as live here on earth with flesh and blood we have a sinful nature. This sinful nature is prone to wickedness and evil. This sinful nature does not want to do the good we ought to do. This sinful nature needs to hear God’s law. God’s law says do this and do not do that. God’s law points out our sins. God’s law can strike the fear of God in our hearts. "The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread"(ISAIAH 8:13). This is the fear of God and the fear of God’s law that is scary.
E. The Christian also has the new man, born again by water and the spirit. Our new man wants to follow God and do the good we ought. Our new man does not serve the Savior out of fear and dread but because of fear and respect. Why do we fear, love and respect God above all things? God bought us with a price. "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"(HEBREWS 9:14). Isaiah describes the living God as one to be feared (law). This verse describes our living God as one who saves (gospel). The blood of Christ saves us from death to willingly serve.
F. Now our lives are drastically and dramatically changed forever. No longer do selfishly look out only for ourselves. Leave that to the unbelieving world. No longer do we selfishly treat others badly. Leave that to the unbelieving world. No longer do we…. Jesus’ life, blood, death, and resurrection give us reason to love our neighbors as ourselves. "Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all wicked-ness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good"(TITUS 2:14). Eager to do what is good is the motto of the believer in Christ. This faith and hope in God is what makes us strangers here. Being eager to do what is good is strange in the eyes of this world.
CONC.: There may be times that we face despair, discouragement, and depression. Take out your Bible and read and reread the message of hope in this letter from God through Peter. In the darkest, early days of Christianity God through Peter encouraged these believers with a message of hope. Hope in this life, hope in this world, hope in ourselves, and / or hope in the experts will often only lead to despair, discouragement, and depression. Remember: YOUR FAITH AND HOPE ARE IN GOD. God bought you with a price – the holy, precious blood of Christ and his innocent sufferings and death. Our reaction is to live lives here in reverent fear. Romans 5 is also another great chapter for hope and encouragement. "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us"(ROMANS 5:5). Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
EASTER 3 readings:
ACTS 9:1-19a; REVELATION 5:11-14; JOHN 21:1-14
